Entries from The Amateur Gourmet tagged with 'Lisa'
How To Cook Fish (A Musical)
Dear Readers, I am so proud to share with you my latest Food2.com effort: "I Can't Cook Fish," a musical co-starring my friend Lisa and Rebecca Charles of Pearl Oyster Bar. For anyone who's written me before saying you're nervous to cook fish at home, this video's for YOU! If you liked it, please head over to our page on the Food2 site, give us a good rating and send the video to all of your friends! And if you haven't seen our other videos--Homemade Pasta, The Omelet Episode, or Perfect Steak--please watch those too. Special fish musical thanks must go to Joshua Hume (my collaborator and director), Ricky Marson for arranging the music, Lindy Groening for the awesome artwork, Ben Rasmussen for his choreography, the dancers--Chelsea Bonosky, Alana Isiguen, Alyssa Maksym--and, of course, Rebecca Charles, for sharing her fish recipe and her singing voice!...
Lisa Goes To Dirt Candy
The Best of Lisa
Where would this blog be without my friend Lisa? She was the Gracie Allen to my George Burns, the Betty Comden to my Adolph Green. In our early days, we cooked together, we ate together, and we made crazy videos and songs about food that I posted enthusiastically on the blog. We're still good friends but now she lives oh-so-far-away on the Upper West Side and here I am in Brooklyn; and while distance does indeed make the heart grow fonder, it makes it difficult--especially in the winter months--to get together to make even more zany food videos and songs. Lucky for us, though, my archives are practically bursting with classic A.G.-Lisa collaborations. Before we dig 'em up, let's talk to Lisa for a bit about her history with The Amateur Gourmet....
Karahi (Indian Food in the West Village)
We all know that the first rule of real estate is "location! location! location!" Apparently, though, it's also the first rule of New York friendships. Want to see a lot of someone you really like? It helps to live in the same borough. Take my friend Lisa, for example. There was a time we both lived in Chelsea and when we lived close together we made videos about bulimic tomatoes and miracle almond cakes. Then I moved to Brooklyn and she moved to the Upper West Side. We still see each other, of course, but we'd see each other a lot more if she came to her senses and moved to Brooklyn or if I came to my senses and moved back to Manhattan. Either way, the point is that Lisa has a boyfriend named Eric who I hadn't met yet and so we made a date to meet for Indian food on Sunday so Craig and I could meet this Eric character....
Dinner at Fairway Cafe
My friend Lisa recently moved to her own apartment on the Upper West Side and before I left for my trip, I went uptown to see the place, to give it my blessing (I smashed a bottle of Bartles & James on the door), and to join her for dinner. "Where should we go?" asked Lisa, smartly deferring to me because of my strong opinions regarding food and restaurants. "I don't know," I replied coyly, wanting to appear open-minded and non-domineering. "We could go to--" "FAIRWAY CAFE," I shouted, creating an awkward moment that took a few minutes to dissipate. "Ok?" "Regina Schrambling always writes about The Fairway Cafe on her blog," I explained. "It's upstairs at Fairway." "I know," Lisa replied, a bit irritated at my know-it-all-ness. "I've been there for brunch." "How was it?" "Great!" "Awesome," I said. "So let's go there."...
Is Lisa a Supertaster?
Many of you who've read my book have asked if Lisa, star of Chapter Three, is a Supertaster. You ask because Lisa abhors coffee and olives and her sensitivity to these foods makes her a likely candidate for Supertaster status. Since it was Lisa's birthday recently, I contacted Doug Cress who administers The Supertaster Test and asked him to send me a sample. He kindly did (a few samples, actually) and I brought them with me to Lisa's apartment after our dinner at Kefi (see below). The following video, then, finally sheds light on the mystery of Lisa's tastebuds. To make it even more dramatic, I'd tasted a strip and barely tasted anything and Craig didn't taste anything at all. And so, without further ado, here's Lisa and the supertaster test:...
Kefi
I knew I was going to love Kefi and I did. After signing books at Best Cellars on the Upper West Side on Friday night, my dear pal Lisa (who lives up there now) joined me for the two block walk over to Kefi. "This is supposed to be great," I told her. "Really good Greek food for not very much money."...
Öko & The Fro-Yo Song
One of the joys of living New York is that you can be reading Florence Fabricant's column in the New York Times about a new frozen yogurt place in Park Slope and then realize that to get there you need only walk out your door and over a few blocks. And that's exactly what I did after reading about Öko which, apparently, means "eco" in Hungarian. What does "eco" mean in English? Regardless, here's what I brought back: That's just plain frozen yogurt (there was only plain or wild berry) with kiwi and a gooseberry on top. I'd never had a gooseberry and I immediately heard Veruca Salt's voice: "The gooseberries taste like gooseberries, the snozberries taste like snozberries!" In fact, this gooseberry was like nature's version of one of those gummy sour balls, except not gummy. It had a wonderful surprising squirt of sour. And as for the yogurt, the richness and complex flavors took me by surprise. This is some serious frozen yogurt--the Harvard graduate to TCBY's community college drop-out--and I couldn't get enough. And with the kiwi it felt like a healthy snack, but was it? Lisa tells me that unless it says low fat, it's probably still fattening. So I guess I can't eat it three times a day. Perhaps this video, the last video of music week, will set the record straight....
Falafel Love (A Song)
Music week continues today with falafel! Not only does falafel have three bouncy, musical syllables but it's also a food I've never attempted to make at home. I recruited my friends Lisa and Ricky who are not only game falafel makers but also wonderful musicians and singers (they sing the song at the end of the post). We used Joan Nathan's recipe which you can read here on Epicurious. Here are Lisa and Ricky rolling our falafel in flour:...
